Jack And Her Green Muse

Rapid Crescendo Of Intimacy

It was done. It took another two late nights to finish, but it was done. A title, third verse, chorus, and two ending lines before the full stop. The lyricist's block was no more. "Oh my god, my brain is gonna fucking melt. Hoo....." She needed a break. Her brain was begging for something sweet. Heading downstairs, she opened the communal fridge and pulled out a bar of chocolate that was ninety percent dark. One square always sent her hurtling into absolute bliss for fifteen minutes, effectively recharging her motivation to finish whatever task was at hand.

There it was, exactly where she left it, always labelled like everyone else's stuff. However, what she didn't count on being there was Izuku himself, who was lounging on the couch, watching a TV series on Netflix (courtesy of Yaomomo, while Todoroki volunteered to pick up the tab for Hulu and Crunchyroll) with a box of cookies on his lap. He looked positively throttled, eyes dead as a fish on land.

"Uh, Midoriya?"

"Hmmm?"

"Are...a-are you....okay?" Jirou asked cautiously.

"Just..... can't really think about anything right now....."

"So you're eating this box of cookies on your own while listening to music with one ear and watching uh....oh cool, it's Daredevil. When'd this season come out?"

"About a month and a half ago," Izuku droned, pulling another cookie out and scarfing it down. "I'm half way through. What's up with you?" he asked after swallowing. Jirou couldn't help but snicker a little seeing the hero and Quirk nerd act in such an unbecoming state.

"Grabbing some chocolate. It's great for headaches and stuff. Um, hey, if it's not too much trouble, I....y-you remember the no Quirk exercises we've been doing, right?"

"Yeah. You were really good. I saw you every now and then out of the corner of my eye. And you had a field day beating Sero, Kaminari and Mineta with the stick."

"Oh, yeah. That was fun. Wait, no, you're sidetracking me. I was wondering if, you know, we could....work on that a little more, alongside with uh...what you're helping me with."

"Sure. I mean....if....if you're up for it. I definitely need improvement on reaction time anyways."

"Alright, great!" Jirou said with a smile, a little louder than she intended. "When's good for you?"

"Starting Thursday would work best for me."

"Alright, Thursday. See you then. Thanks a lot." But just as she was about to leave, she felt a hand grab hers, stopping her. "Um...."

"I....sorry, I'm...I lied to you."

"What?"

"About...being okay. I just....I-I lied about that, and I wanted to say that I was sorry before....Anyway, yeah."

"Did you...did you have another nightmare?" Jirou asked, turning around to face him.

"I just dozed off――"

"Who was it this time? Stain? Muscular? That All For One guy?"

"Sh-Shigaraki." It was arguably the worst possible answer that Izuku could give. "Another thing that I never really told anyone was an incident at Kiyashi ward when we all went shopping."

"What the fuck? He was....he was there? Back then?"

"All on his own. At least he appeared to be. As the saying goes, he caught me with my pants down. He kept a hand around my neck, one finger away from turning me into dust like he almost did to Mr. Aizawa at USJ. I didn't do anything then, because I wasn't sure if he brought backup. But in my dream, I try to stop him. Grab him by that finger, twisting him to the ground, applying everything I learned. But he gets away, turning my leg to dust. Then he goes on a killing spree with half a dozen Noumus, targeting bystanders, and then Uraraka, all while I watched. Aside from letting Kacchan slip through my fingers while we were under the Pussy Cats' supervision, it's one of the worst memories I have that I can't put past myself. Part of the reason why I watch shows with heroes in them is, it's comforting. Knowing that in the end, the good guys win all the time, no matter what. False sense of comfort and escapism, I know, but it's something."